Film-Look in Live Production — What are the Specific Requirements and what does an Optimal Camera Look Like?

In live productions, there's a rising demand for a film look, at least for certain camera positions. Achieving this film look involves creating a shallower depth of field, which depends on the focal length of the lens and the size of the imager. However, many live productions face the challenge of overly shallow depth of field with the small 2/3” imagers typically used, complicating focus settings. Therefore, the solution isn't simply larger imagers for all positions but selecting cameras with appropriately sized imagers for each position. A comprehensive live production setup requires various camera types, including standard system cameras, super slow-motion cameras, wireless cameras, and compact cameras. Uniform appearance in color reproduction, gradation, and image sharpness across all cameras is essential. This uniformity is achieved through consistent signal processing or compensatory solutions for different color separation systems. The requirements for film and live production cameras differ. An optimal camera for live applications, aiming for a film look, would feature a larger imager, such as those used in digital cinematography cameras. A Super35 imager with PL mount lenses is likely the best compromise for live productions. However, many live applications also require a global shutter, which isn't always available in digital cinematography cameras. The specific needs of film and live applications vary, making the optimal imager for one unsuitable for the other. The paper details the characteristics of an optimal camera solution for achieving a film look in live productions and suggests potential solutions based on the latest CMOS imager and signal processing developments.

Published

2024-10-21

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

film-look, 2/3-inch, s35, pl mount, global shutter, olpf, cmos imagers, lut

DOI

10.5594/MOO/3039

ISBN

978-1-61482-965-2